There’s Nowhere Safe Anymore

Jan 13, 2003

Lorraine agrees we need to fight, but she doesn’t want anyone she cares about doing it. The idea that we can just sit at home and be safe simply doesn’t apply to this war. The enemy came here and attacked us on 9/11. We cannot “mind our own business” against a foe who wishes to destroy us and set up a radical, worldwide Islamic state. They attacked two of our embassies in Africa and slaughtered hundreds of innocents, simply because we had women ambassadors and they hate women as equals. For all these reasons, this situation in Iraq is going to test the mettle of our leaders. Next, Jane in Alabama called and said of Lorraine, “She has these precious, wonderful grandchildren she does not want to send to war. What about those of us who have husbands who we do send to war?” She was absolutely right in saying that Lorraine’s attitude that we should bomb, but not put her kids in harm’s way, is insulting to the people who volunteer. Those people deserve our praise, for protecting us from an evil that can strike you, me, or Lorraine’s grandchildren, anytime, anywhere. We have to think here, and stop reading mindlessly from the Vietnam era script.There’s no need for a draft, because we have a military of volunteers who make the sacrifices people like Lorraine want made but would never make themselves. I want to add something else: in this new era, 3,000 American civilians died at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I wonder how many of those in the Twin Towers were active military? The point is clear: there’s nowhere safe in this war. This enemy can attack your kids in their cubicle, or at a nightclub in Bali or while gassing up their cars. Why, you can’t even run to Canada, because bin Laden’s people have threatened them too. Think, Lorraine. Think – and Jane? Thank you from all of us here at EIB.